


An Alchemical Affair With Darkness

by Malsang



Series: My Dark-Light Muse [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Hogwarts First Year, Other, Possibly Pre-Slash, Potions, Seemingly bad parents deserve the benefit of being understood too, Slytherin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 06:46:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17483153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malsang/pseuds/Malsang
Summary: Severus has to deal with an angry parent over their child's lower-than-expected grades. He subsequently gets reminded of how he came to be so good at Occlumency; why he always got such high grades in Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts; why being in Slytherin is the only path that will lead you to True Greatness; and why he is friends with a short-tempered drama-queen in the first place...Because when he stops being angry, he can become something Other...





	An Alchemical Affair With Darkness

"Severus!"

Force of long habit and an inborn instinct for self-preservation stopped him from flinching in surprised reaction. One could not afford a single unintentional wand-movement when brewing such a complex and volatile potion, no matter who swept into your private workroom and demanded instant attention. Nor could he afford to utter a single syllable that was not part of the spell-weaving until he put his wand down.

Plegmatically, he raised an eyebrow at the sight of an enraged Lucius Malfoy, but he could not allow even a hint of irritation to mar the brew.

Lucius fumed silently. Having an alchemist for a father had meant that he had learned from a very young age not to demand an immediate response from someone hovering over a potion with a wand. He had only known Severus at Hogwarts for one year, but the sheer familiarity of his dedication to the precise art of potion-making had meant that their shared-house familiarity had quickly extended to a deeper kinship that outlasted their time together at school. Severus was not the type to make friends easily, and Lucius had smoothed the way for him even from beyond the boundaries of Hogwarts. Not fought his battles for him, obviously - that would have been unseemly as well as counter-productive - just reminded housemates that bullying someone who could brew something tasteless and highly poisonous was how the weak-minded got culled from the ranks of pure-blood wizardry. And where would they be if all henchmen got killed before they reached adulthood? Wasting their time doing the same things a moron could be trained to do? True potion-mastery required one to be cold as ice, completely in control of one's emotions. Lucius could not hope to equal his father in this, but he had hoped that Narcissa's self-control would offset the short-temper he had inherited from his own mother, in Draco. Unfortunately she seemed to have indulged the boy too much, making him soft in the face of deadly opposition. This needed to change whilst Draco was boarded at Hogwarts, or he would not survive his first real enemy. He could not afford to let the bloodline die out so pathetically.

Eventually Severus sheathed his wand. "And to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence in my workroom at this time?"

"Draco's grades."

"I cannot afford to give him any more credit than I am already awarding him."

"You are his Housemaster. I am trusting you to guide him in my stead whilst he is here. You know better than most, what is at stake. How can you allow my son to be outcompeted by a Mudblood?"

"Believe me, Ms Granger already gets as little credit for her talent as I can afford to give her without bringing the wrath of the Headmaster down upon me. There is only so much that I can do to undermine her naïve self-confidence without driving her into actually developing greater talent in perverse reaction. For now, she is book-bound in her understanding of magic, complacent in her self-assurance that she can learn everything she ought to know from authorised texts. If I try to push her down any harder, she'll break through her own desire to remain within the rules and be into the restricted section of the library before her need for approval in everything she does reins her in. Unless you want her to become a strong champion of 'all that's good and pure in the world', don't try to tell your father how to properly brew Veritaserum."

"Then tutor Draco privately in this. You promised us that he would excel in your class."

"I can neither make Felix Felicis out of dragon's teeth, nor agree to tutor a student privately. I would have every Slytherin parent demanding the same miracle, should I even manage to pull it off. And I have little enough time to myself as it is when irate parents can come barging in on me demanding the impossible. I'd assumed that you would ensure that he study with his grandfather before coming here. Instead you give me a pampered puppy and expect me to turn him into a dragon that can breath ice."

Balked, Lucius flung himself into a chair, moodily glaring at nothing in particular.

Sighing internally, Severus took a seat with quiet dignity, relying on tacit reproval to make his point rather than directly antagonising a frustrated, drama-queen.

Recalled to propriety, Lucius subtly adjusted his pose until it mimicked the younger wizard's, concealing his emotions behind the mask of graceful elegance he strove to maintain in public. Severus didn't have the bloodline to achieve the full impact such manners would otherwise have ensured him, but he set the bar so high in compensation, that Lucius could not afford but to follow where he led; eagerly learning from someone who could push him to ever greater heights.

Lucius had inherited his looks from his mother's side, along with the mannerisms that tended to accompany such feminine beauty. Eileen Prince by comparison, had been no great beauty, relying on more mannish dignity and a cultivated accent to gain respect in the wizarding community. Severus had refined this even further, until even Lucius would have felt inferior by comparison if he had allowed himself the idea that a half-blood could be superior to a pure-blood.

With such an example directly before him to copy, the effect Lucius could achieve was mind-blowing, and Severus was less than subtly reminded of why he allowed Lucius so much leeway in their friendship. It was more than flattering to have a pure-blood attempt to mimic him so closely; it was intoxicating. His skill at Occlumency had been born from such confusing sights as these, trying to make sense of the emotions and ideas Lucius invoked in him, until he didn't know his own mind. Lily remained the first and purest love of his life, but Lucius could invoke darker things in him, things that required an ever increasing amount of self-control to contain. Things he didn't even want to know about himself; until the idea that anyone could understand the dichotomy of his mind was preposterous. If he couldn't accept his own deepest desires in the privacy of his mind, what hope had any Legimens of breaking through such strong barriers? And the more Lucius showed him this image, the stronger he got as a result. It was a bittersweet agony to be around him, when he chose to show him this. Everytime he saw it he buried the memory so deeply that he could not recall it. Everytime, seeing it again was as breathtaking and confusing as the first time.

"Surely you could find some extra time to work with my son? You know how important this is, and not just to me personally. Father won't be around forever." When he saw the light start to burn in Severus' eyes, he knew he had won. The Malfoy Apothecary was famous, and it must remain in the family, at least, nominally. Draco could not inherit where Lucius had been dismissed, unless he displayed greater talent than his own father; enough to satisfy Abraxas and win his blessing. Who actually ensured that the business flourished, was not as important as who was seen to be the worthy heir of such an institution. Everyone had their price, and returning to the impressively outfitted establishment was a boyhood dream of Severus' dating back to the summer of '72, when he had sought to bind the young potioneer to his family by inviting Severus to accompany him there. Proof positive, that just because he had graduated from Hogwarts didn't mean that childhood loyalties would be discarded, as he moved on into the adult world leaving Severus behind. He had been very careful to maintain that tie of loyalty between them over the years. Now he chose to draw upon interest earned through investment, in the hope of repayment in kind.

"I suppose I might be able to find Some time, but it cannot be during the school term. I'm watched too closely here." The slow smile of victory on Lucius' face only served to intoxicate him more. He was struggling to maintain his implacable mask of indifference and grudging condescension. The thought of spending time away from Hogwarts, in the presence of such a darkly-bright vision no less... How could he possibly feel that Lucius winning in any way meant that he was losing by comparison? These were the true dark arts that he sought to protect himself against, and he was more than eager to spend his free time refining his skill against a worthy opponent.

"I'll see you on the platform with Draco when next I see him then?"

"If nothing arises to make such arrangements impossible to keep." That quiet smirk was more deadly than a Forbidden Curse. It would be his great pleasure to dual against it again at the first opportunity.

They rose together; an agony of synchronicity. What would he be like as a dance-partner- a duelling-partner?! He would be a veritable snake of distracting hypnosis.

Only once Lucius had swept out did he dare to breathe freely. His hands which he had tucked behind his back were actually trembling slightly. Well he wasn't potion-master for nothing, he reassured himself, helping himself to one of the vials from the last batch of Calming Draught intended for those who broke under the stress of the examinations. Every year he managed to refine the process a little further, picking ever more perfect conditions to increase the strength and quality of the result. It just about kept pace with his own need for such a potent brew. And if the rest of the staff thought him merely pridefully obsessed with the complexities of his craft, it only proved how little they truly understood about dark-magic and what it took to resist giving in to its charms.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for the motivating inspiration to write this particular work must go directly to Jason Isaacs, for his interview answers to questions on his creative input into the role of Lucius - mostly how he perceived the visual impact of his character. And specifically, most recently, his very open answer about Lucius' accent - how Alan Rickman had set the bar so high...
> 
> I swear, Isaacs comes across as utterly shameless in his narcissistic love-affair with his own creation. Gotta luv the guy!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Evolution of the Serpentine Autophage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626268) by [Malsang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malsang/pseuds/Malsang)




End file.
